In pursuit of color

I had some free time yesterday, and there were errands to run, so I set out in my car.  But after getting a mile or two from the house, three things were clear: the autumn colors were at their peak, the sky was lightly cloudy (a perfect foil for the brightly colored leaves), and the weather was about to shift; within a day or two the wind and rain will have reduced most of our deciduous trees to bare branches. So I drove back to the house to get my camera, and set out again.

The most gorgeous trees were often in rather ugly locations; mostly shopping malls.  Do developers plant them in rows around the malls to disguise the ugliness of commerce?  I found this one, for example, behind a video store that had gone out of business.  But it was fun to drive with this as a side objective, noticing where the colors shone the brightest. 

In the end, my errands were completely unsuccessful (though I did find a particular brand of tea I was looking for, and I got some chocolate-covered marzipan (a favorite treat)).  But my eyes came home greatly refreshed, and my camera came home full of color and joy.  Despite the rain and wind, it was a lovely afternoon.